10/30/2017

There was never any doubt that another James Bond movie would happen; the only question was whether Daniel Craig would return as 007. That was finally confirmed a couple of months ago, and while there is still no director attached, attention has begun to turn towards the movie's villain. One guy it won't be is Christoph Waltz, who says he won't be coming back.

During a brief interview on the red carpet, captured by Italian site Talky Movie, Waltz was pretty firm that Spectre was at for him...“No, I’m sorry. I’m really sad, but that’s the tradition, that there is a new…name. Sorry. I would’ve liked to.”
Tradition? "New name"? What's he talking about? Well, he's referring to the tradition that a different actor take on the role of classic Bond villain, Ernst Blofeld. The character has been played by five actors since first appearing on screen in 1967's You Only Live Twice (He had a couple of films where he was kept off screen) with Waltz being the most recent.

Does this mean we've seen the last of Blofeld? That's hard to say. Another actor could be cast in the role, which would be keeping with tradition, or he may not appear at all. It seems, at least to me, that if the next film is Daniel Craig's last then it should be against Blofeld, the mastermind of the SPECTRE organization.

Of course, Waltz could be lying and he's signed and ready to return. We likely won't know for sure for quite some time. The next Bond film is set to open on November 8th 2019.